This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.

Little Dorrit on PBS Masterpiece Classic

Charles Dickens wrote Little Dorrit during the mid 19th century, but he placed the story at a time when his father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea, a debtor’s prison. PBS will be airing a 5-installment series of Little Dorrit starting tonight at 9 p.m. EST and ending April 26th. If you have missed any episodes, you can watch them online at this link.

The film is stunning; the acting is outstanding; and this story of greed, ponzi schemes, lost fortunes, insurmountable debts, and wrecked lives resonates in today’s financial climate. In the next few weeks I will be posting a series of thoughts and reviews about this film, which is set in the Regency Period. The links sit below this slide show.

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Thanks for your comment Vic. Please do feel free to also canvas the topic in question, V.Books wholly deserve as much interest as can be rustled up. Also, thanks for bringing Little Dorrit to my attention! I don’t have a TV right now so I miss out on so many good productions but I’ll be watching online now that I know where to. Thanks! – Rebecca.

If anyone wants to purchase Little Dorrit on iTunes you can get it in the UK iTunes store. If you live in the US or Canada and want a UK iTunes account just go to the UK store, click on the app store, then pick a free app to download, click ” Get App ” at which point a pop up will ask you to log in. Click on open new account and enter your details on that page and continue to the next step of the account creation. Now click payment method ” None ” then enter your name and a valid UK address. The address can belong to anyone ie: a company, a friend ect. it just has to have a street, town and postal code that match or the program will flag it as not valid. If you don’t have one just Google a UK company or address.

You can try to enter your Credit Card info but, I’ve yet to get it to work without a credit card from the UK. So how do you buy things ? Well… the best way I’ve found is to have a friend in the UK ” Gift ” it to me. Then I just login to the UK iTunes, go to my email and redeem the ” Gift “. I then send my friend a ” Gift ” of equal value from the US or Canadian store. You can of course send them a iTunes Gift Certificate to their email and they send you one from the UK store as well. If they don’t have a US iTunes account, the same instructions work for setting up a US iTunes account or Canadian one. One note about setting up a US iTunes account. You should use an address in Oregon as they don’t have sales tax.

Now you have a UK iTunes account.

On a side note. If anyone would like to watch the BBC from the US or anywhere for that mater. All the shows are on the BBC iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer the only thing being, you’ll need the BBC web site to think you’re in the UK. This can be done by going to http://www.vpnuk.info/shared-ip.html and get a single or multi shared UK VPN account. They really do offer good support as well with their ” Live Support ” it’s a IM support line and they helped me set it up in five minutes. Works like a charm ever since. Now you just need to turn on the UK VPN client and go to the BBC iPlayer site to watch every show on the BBC. This even works on my iPhone. That’s right I can sit in Starbucks and watch the BBC. Too funny. Anyhoo… hope this brings joy to someone needing their fix of all things British and most importantly Jane Austen.

The PBS broadcast cut many short, and in some instances, extended scenes from the production. You will have to view or purchase the DVD in order to see the complete version of the story. Here are most of the cut scenes. I am not sure if I caught all of them.

1. An extension of the scenes where John Chivery prepares for his proposal with Amy and again when he returns to the Marshalsea after Amy has refused him. He gives us his first epitaphs.

2. The crackling Mrs. Merdle-Fanny interview is extended, with more parrot interruptions and venomous class snobbery and insults from Mrs. Merdle. There is an additional added short scene between Mrs. Merdle and Sparkler, in which she informs him that Fanny has ditched him.

3. At the conclusion of the first Merdle dinner, the doctor and Bar have a discussion about Mr. Merdle, in which they take note of Mr. Merdlle’s habitual low spirts, lack of any known medical condition, and finish up by stating they would not trade places with Mr. Merdle in spite of his millions.

4. Soon after Arthur finds out about Pet accepting Henry Gowan’s marriage proposal, there is a scene where he is standing behind Mr. and Mrs. Meagles who are seated (they look like they are not that happy about the marriage). Pet and Gowen are playing on the pianoforte. Arthur appears quite distressed.

5. Henry Gowan visits Arthur in his lodgings after the marriage proposal to Pet and discusses with him about how life and marriages could be like a “sham”. He then asks Arthur if he would accept being his best man in the wedding. Arthur accepts.

6. A short scene with Mr. Pancks showing him poring over voluminous records from his Dorrit investigations.

7. A brief extension of the scene where Flora and Aunt F visit Arthur at Doyce and Clennam. Flora blurts out that her Father is a rapacious money-grubbing landlord.

8. Right after Arthur tells Amy about the Dorrit fortune news, there is a scene as they both walk together towards Mr. Dorrit’s prison room and Mr. Chivery and John, who are seated on the bench outside, make a comment that something must be up upon seeing the two of them walking together.

9. When Amy goes to talk to Pet who is resting after her fainting spell, the Gowan’s dog growls when Amy and Pet are talking and Pet tells the dog to shush. The dog appeared to be upset about something. As Amy exits the room, she is confronted by Rigaud, who insists that he escort her back downstairs. Rigaud takes her back to her father and they sit down and have a small chat. Rigaud gives a patronizing comment to Mr. Dorrit which he happily accepts. Mr. Dorrit then says goodnight to Rigaud as they go to retire.

10. A brief extension of the Mrs. Gowen-Meagles interview, with Mrs. Gowen stating that the different social classes will never see eye to eye. She then asks Arthur to escort her to her carriage.

11. After Mrs. General chastises Amy for conversing with common men, there is an extended scene in which Mrs. General attempts to teach Amy how to properly engage in social conversation.

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Hello, my name is Vic and I live in Richmond, VA. I work in program and professional development at Virginia Commonwealth University, and I have adored Jane Austen almost all of my life. I am a proud lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I do not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, I do accept and keep books, DVDs and CDs to review.

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Irresistible Attraction

An online Regency novel in serialized form. Click here to read a new chapter of Irresistible Attraction each week, and follow the story of Amanda Sinclair and James Cavendish, the Earl of Downsley.

My Regency Tea Cup Review Ratings

Five Regency tea cups: The book is not perfect (few books are), but it was well worth its purchase and possesses many outstanding qualities that makes it stand head and shoulders above its counterparts.

Four Regency tea cups: This book offered many hours of pleasant reading, and I found I could not put it down.

Three Regency tea cups: Damned with faint praise. I put the book down often, but was intrigued enough to finish it. In this instance, the movie might be better.

Two Regency tea cups: This book required major changes that the author and editor should have fixed before publishing deadline.

One Regency tea cup: Oh dear. I do so feel for the trees that sacrificed their lives for this verbal garbage.